what are seed potatoes.

[Flummery]

Not sure about that. There are many varieties of potatoes these days that don't flower or set seed. You can't grow these like that. Seed potatoes, I always understood, simply meant potatoes that you use for 'seed' purposes. True seed, which you are suggesting as the source of 'seed potatoes' in the next generation, are actually only commonly available on a limited number of varieties. Spuds these days are bred for bulking up tubers, not for 'wasting' energy flowering and setting seed.

[maypril]

When you buy seed potatoes they are the tubers of potatoes that have been grown from seed.

This is not true

[Snadger]

I think the word we're all missing is 'Certified'.In other words, seed potatoes are certified 'virus free'.

Potatoes we keep ourselves or from the shops, could be riddled with virus or not.

[valmarg]

This is not true

Why isn't it? Why do you say that? Just curious.

valmarg

[Flummery]

Many of the potatoes we grow don't flower or set seed. They can't be grown from the seed of the previous generation. They can only be grown vegetatively, from 'seed' tubers, for many generations.

[tattieman]

Here is how I term seed potatoes.
At the start a new variety can be derived from crossing pollen from potato flowers with other varieties.
The said crossing will then produce a potato fruit much like a tomato that is full of seed. Each seed will be slightly different to each other and these seeds will be grown to produce plants which then produce potatoes.
At this stage the breeder will look for desirable features such as disease resistance,shape,colour or what ever it is that they wish to breed.
The potatoes from the selected plants are then re-planted to produce another crop and so on until a stable and uniformed variety has been established.
At this stage it will be put forward for classification so that it maybe registered and sold as a new variety.
The most common way to multiply up the stock is to produce stem cut minitubers which will be clones of the original potatoes.
These clones will be government inspected and will be 100% disease free when they are planted.
These are now first generation seed potatoes and as long as they meet the strict government testing criteria they will always be seed potatoes each time they are re-planted.
A seed potato can be marketed from the smallest size of 25mm upto the largest size of 60mm.
Certified seed potatoes are not as good as Basic seed potatoes that are produced in Scotland and other suitable areas. Certified potatoes have a much higher level of disease tolerance so you should always look for the words Basic on any seed potatoes.
Non seed potatoes will not have been inspected by any government officals, they could be full of disease, they could be imported and spread foreign disease into the UK or they could have been treated with sprout supressants to stop them growing.

I hope that helps.

[Snadger]

Here is how I term seed potatoes.
At the start a new variety can be derived from crossing pollen from potato flowers with other varieties.
The said crossing will then produce a potato fruit much like a tomato that is full of seed. Each seed will be slightly different to each other and these seeds will be grown to produce plants which then produce potatoes.
At this stage the breeder will look for desirable features such as disease resistance,shape,colour or what ever it is that they wish to breed.
The potatoes from the selected plants are then re-planted to produce another crop and so on until a stable and uniformed variety has been established.
At this stage it will be put forward for classification so that it maybe registered and sold as a new variety.
The most common way to multiply up the stock is to produce stem cut minitubers which will be clones of the original potatoes.
These clones will be government inspected and will be 100% disease free when they are planted.
These are now first generation seed potatoes and as long as they meet the strict government testing criteria they will always be seed potatoes each time they are re-planted.
A seed potato can be marketed from the smallest size of 25mm upto the largest size of 60mm.
Certified seed potatoes are not as good as Basic seed potatoes that are produced in Scotland and other suitable areas. Certified potatoes have a much higher level of disease tolerance so you should always look for the words Basic on any seed potatoes.
Non seed potatoes will not have been inspected by any government officals, they could be full of disease, they could be imported and spread foreign disease into the UK or they could have been treated with sprout supressants to stop them growing.

I hope that helps.

Must confess I'm a bit lost off here Tattieman? Basic I can understand, but what are Certified tatties certified to be or do?

[womble]

Certified seed potatoes are not as good as Basic seed potatoes that are produced in Scotland and other suitable areas. Certified potatoes have a much higher level of disease tolerance so you should always look for the words Basic on any seed potatoes.

That seems to contradict itself, can you clarify?
You say Basic are better than Certified, but then that Certified have a much higher level of disease tolerance.

Not that I've ever seen a Basic seed potato I think, but which is best then?

Or have I got confused....

[Jeanied]

Here you go folks - Defra's page on the classification of seed spuds
Seed Potato Classification Scheme (SPCS)

[tattieman]

Yes you are correct I don't make any sense.
What I meant to say was that certified seed have a higher disease tolerance level of 5% where as Basic seed is a 2% tolerance level to disease in the crops. That means that you can have 5% disease in the crop of certified seed compared to only 2% in Basic seed. That means that there will be alot less disease in Basic seed potatoes compared to certified potatoes.

[Jeanied]

Well I understood what you said Tattieman - what I'm interested in high resistance to disease, not high tolerance of it. Or even better, clean potatoes. From what I gathered from you and the DEFRA page, Basic potatoes are the ones you can grow to plant again, and the certifieds are the ones you grow to eat! So saving certifieds to grow again is asking for trouble.

[womble]

Yes you are correct I don't make any sense.
What I meant to say was that certified seed have a higher disease tolerance level of 5% where as Basic seed is a 2% tolerance level to disease in the crops. That means that you can have 5% disease in the crop of certified seed compared to only 2% in Basic seed. That means that there will be alot less disease in Basic seed potatoes compared to certified potatoes.

Well I understood what you said Tattieman - what I'm interested in high resistance to disease, not high tolerance of it. Or even better, clean potatoes. From what I gathered from you and the DEFRA page, Basic potatoes are the ones you can grow to plant again, and the certifieds are the ones you grow to eat! So saving certifieds to grow again is asking for trouble.

OK, Thanks, got it.

Next question is. What do most of the garden centres and Wilkinson's sell?
Tbh I've never looked at the packaging, I thought a seed potato was a seed potato.

[tattieman]

I think you will find that most garden centres are selling Basic seed potatoes. Not sure about Wilkinsons to be honest.

[womble]

I've just had a look at the link Jean put up and it says....

Pre-basic and Basic seed is mainly intended for the production of seed crops, while Certified seed is mainly intended for ware production.

Which sort of seems to suggest that most of the seed sold to us, the normal gardener is certified. But from what you say Tattieman, this is not true.

As I said, I've never looked closely at the seed potatoes sold before, I will look at them with greater interest from this moment on.

[tattieman]

If you buy seed from Scotland then it is all Basic seed as that is all we can produce up here. We can't produce certified seed. I am sure just about all seed for sale in the shops will be Basic seed so I wouldn't worry.